Featured – Urban Planning

The following collects together some of the more significant articles on urban planning.

You can see all articles on urban planning using the category filter at the right of post pages (or this link), and all the articles touching on the links between urban planning and film using this link.

Walt Disney, Urban Designer
Walt Disney, Urban Planner
A pair of related essays looking at Walt Disney’s contribution to the built environment. The first looks at his knack for urban design, while the second looks at his ambitions as an urban planner.

Seeing Seaside
My thoughts on the New Urbanist town of Seaside, based on a visit in 2010. It looks at my own preconceptions about the town and what I think it has to teach planners.

Fifty Years of Ugliness
A look at Robin Boyd’s classic book, considering the ways in which its still relevant, and the ways in which we’ve found new and better ways to uglify our cities.

The Classic Hollywood Town at the Dawn of Suburbia
An extended essay looking at the depictions of small town life in Hollywood movies of the 1940s and outlining some of the features that distinguish our idealised communities from those that were actually constructed in the great suburban boom from the 1950s onwards. Originally published at Senses of Cinema, this was the basis for material in the first chapter of my first book.

Job Opportunities in the Virtual City: Planners and SimCity
An exploration of the city builder games such as SimCity, looking in particular at what they might teach budding planners.

Planning in Victoria

This is a selection of some of my main pieces on Victorian planning. A more complete list can be found by browsing this tag.

(Note as of November 2021 – this list is in need of a refresh!)

The Victorian Planning History Collection
Not an article, but a page for the digital library of Victorian planning documents that I have assembled.

The Wrong Idea not Implemented Properly
My comments upon the proposed “VicSmart” reforms.

Begging for Reason
My submission to what is surely the most slipshod planning review in recent Victorian history: the proposed new zones.

Fixing the Victorian Planning System: Six Key Issues
My submission to the Underwood review, which became a brief survey of the key problems with the Victorian planning system (and which effectively rounded out what I had written in my Act Review submission, immediately below.)

Fixing the Planning & Environment Act
A discussion of the key issues raised by the Modernising Victoria’s Planning Act review.

Building a Better System
A mega-article collating various different ideas for improvement in the Victorian planning system.

Meeting Half-Way: A Collaborative Approach to Permit Assessments
My completely un-heeded call for a more co-operative approach to assessing planning permits.

Driving with the Handbrake On
A discussion of some of the fundamental structural problems in Victorian planning, and their solutions.

Second Thoughts on Secondary Consent
A look at a fairly technical issue: if you don’t plan in Victoria, you don’t need to read this!

Clause 101

Clause 101 was a humour column written by myself and Tim Westcott. The following are the articles that I wrote for it.

Renegade Planner Lives on the Edge

e-Planning Update

Government Announces White Elephant Breeding Program

Opposition Proposes Mandatory Height Limit for Planning Ministers

Senior Industry Figure Fondly Recalls Time in Local Government, Moon Landing

Camberwell Residents Unveil Bold Vision of Status Quo

Planning Nerd Christmas Gift Guide

Car Parking Controls Given Heritage Listing

New Tunnel to Link Eastern Freeway with Kingdom of the Mole Men

New Home Showcases Innovative Alternatives to Good Design